The general objectives of the proposed investigations are (1) to increase our understanding of the nature of intra-organismic conflicts produced by the simultaneous instigation of incompatible locomotor or discriminatory response tendencies; (2) to determine whether, and to what degree, alcohol mitigates the aversiveness of such conflicts; and (3) to evaluate the relative utility of the tension-reduction and disinhibition theories of alcohol's role in conflict resolution. Experiments will be conducted to determine the effects of ethanol on avoidance gradients in isolation and in pairs in avoidance-avoidance conflict paradigms; to determine the manner in which stimulus generalization is affected by ethanol; to examine conflict behavior induced by the imposition of difficult visual discrimination tasks under ethanol and control conditions; to evaluate emotional concomitants of innate fear-arousing stimuli and of discrimination-induced stress under ethanol by means of electrocardiographic methods; to refine and evaluate a disinhibition model as an alternative to the tension-reduction hypothesis of ethanol's effects. These studies will be conducted at the infra-human level with rats and perhaps guinea pigs as the subjects.